TON Blockchain
At the core of the platform is the TON Blockchain — a scalable and flexible blockchain architecture5 that consists of a master chain and up to 292 accompanying blockchains. Below are some notable design choices that allow the TON Blockchain to process millions of transactions per second.
Infinite Sharding Paradigm
To achieve scalability, TON has built-in support for sharding: TON blockchains can automatically split and merge to accommodate changes in load. This means that new blocks are always generated quickly and the absence of long queues helps keep transaction costs low, even if some of the services using the platform become massively popular.
Instant Hypercube Routing
TON blockchains use smart routing mechanisms to ensure that transactions between any two blockchains will always be processed swiftly, regardless of the size of the system. The time needed to pass information between TON blockchains grows logarithmically with their number, so scaling to even millions of chains will allow them all to communicate at top speed.
Proof-of-Stake Approach
TON uses a Proof-of-Stake approach in which processing nodes («validators») deposit stakes to guarantee their dependability and reach consensus through a variant of the Byzantine Fault Tolerant protocol. This allows TON to focus the computing power of its nodes on handling transactions and smart contracts, further increasing speed and efficiency.
2-D Distributed Ledgers
TON can «grow» new valid blocks on top of any blocks that were proven to be incorrect to avoid unnecessary forks. This self-healing mechanism saves resources and guarantees that valid transactions will not be discarded due to unrelated errors.
TON Platform
As a multi-blockchain project, TON requires sophisticated network protocols — such as the TON P2P Network used to access the TON blockchains6 — that can be reused to give a significant boost in flexibility to the platform. The following components are scheduled to be released after the TON Blockchain core and will further increase the potential uses of the TON infrastructure.
TON Storage
TON Storage is a distributed file-storage technology, accessible through the TON P2P Network and available for storing arbitrary files, with torrent-like access technology and smart contracts used to enforce availability. This component not only enables storage services akin to a distributed Dropbox, but also paves the way for more complex decentralized apps that require storing large amounts of data, such as Youtube — or Telegram.
TON Proxy
TON Proxy is a network proxy/anonymizer layer used to hide the identity and IP addresses of TON nodes. Similar to I2P (Invisible Internet Project), this layer can be used to create decentralized VPN services and blockchain-based TOR alternatives to achieve anonymity and protect online privacy. In conjunction with the TON P2P Network and TON DNS, TON Proxy can make any service, including Telegram, effectively immune to censorship.
TON Services
TON Services provides a platform for third-party services of any kind that enables smartphone-like friendly interfaces for decentralized apps and smart contracts, as well as a World Wide Web-like decentralized browsing experience.
TON DNS
TON DNS is a service for assigning human-readable names to accounts, smart contracts, services, and network nodes. With TON DNS, accessing decentralized services can be similar to viewing a website on the World Wide Web.
TON Payments
TON Payments is a platform for micropayments and a micropayment channel network. It can be used for instant off-chain value transfers between users, bots, and other services. Safeguards built into the system ensure that these transfers are as secure as on-chain transactions.
The following components are scheduled to be released after the TON Blockchain core and will further increase the potential uses of the TON infrastructure.
TON Storage is a distributed file-storage technology, accessible through the TON P2P Network and available for storing arbitrary files, with torrent-like access technology and smart contracts used to enforce availability.
TON Proxy is a network proxy/anonymizer layer used to hide the identity and IP addresses of TON nodes.
TON Services provides a platform for third-party services of any kind that enables smartphone-like friendly interfaces for decentralized apps and smart contracts, as well as a World Wide Web-like decentralized browsing experience.
TON DNS is a service for assigning human-readable names to accounts, smart contracts, services, and network nodes.
TON Payments is a platform for micropayments and a micropayment channel network.
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There are already tons of large players in the market, ranging from banking wallets (CitiPay) to Fintechs (PayPal, Venmo). TON has direct competitors across different services the company would like to build from messaging to decentralized VPN services.
As of Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism, it\u2019s also in several large Blockchain projects, including Ethereum, immediate roadmap.
The main product risk for TON is that many of the services have already been introduced by competitors and therefore might gain significant market share by the time TON launching its services. As WhatsApp and Facebook messenger already have large market shares among western countries, it might be hard for the project to expand its market share in western countries. All TON services are now only concepts and the characteristics of the final system may ultimately be very different from those claimed in WP, especially in terms of network bandwidth.
In this regard, it is not clear which direction of the development will be the main focus at early stages. There is no data on the evaluation of economic effects of each of the indicated areas. The given cost distribution is not detailed and only highlights the use of funds. The price per customer might be significantly lower than $40 for WhatsApp, as there are many customers of Telegram among countries with oppressive regimes. That is why the valuation of the company is arbitrary. Since the outlines of the TON and Telegram projects are very diffused, this can eventually lead to the fact that not the ICO participants, but the founders of Telegram will be the main beneficiaries of the sale process. The collected funds will finance Telegram roadmap, which is in fact closely related to TON, but still a different project.
At the moment, the whole project team is involved in Telegram. Despite the fact that TON and Telegram are strongly interrelated projects, their development should be separated.
Telegram, right, this one, in my opinion, is not a good ICO.
Our rating for TON is 8 due to its strong project-fundamentals. However, TON is good for flipping only for investors who succeed in getting in at its early stages (cheaper than $1 per TON). The team is planning to fix the price near ICO level by using their reserve fund (52% of tokens) in the future, so we think flipping will not be a good idea at the late stages of the ICO. Moreover, as mentioned above, the amount of money to be raised looks excessive.
